reading design

i'm reading about two compelling things,

(when i'm not reading Phryne Fisher stories)

design and craft.

phryne i reserve for the very humid and hot days, in the afternoon

when my head feels enormous and mushy

especially after i did this

have you tried to walk or make paper or garden 

when your big toe is swollen and bruised

or hauled a fan up and down stairs (16) because you only have one?

i did, however, complete this chore first:

i felled a basswood that was growing in my perennial border

where it's not allowed.

sawing basswood takes almost no strength, 

such a pleasure to do this job quickly (the cutting, that is, stripping is still work).

i clip off the branches

and then stripped the bark leaving outer and inner bast intact, 

to send to Heather from PBI

who is sending me a trade.

grin. this is fun.

and basswood, well, it's delicious.

it doesn't smell or feel quite as lovely as slippery elm, 

which i still have to "weed" out of that border...you know,

the end of the border where it becomes forest?

i also made a little stack of 27 square flax papers

laying them flat to air dry without restraint.

(black cases hold typewriter and sewing machine)

as they dry they become dimensional

which always pleases me

stacking them is fun

especially when i can stack them on top of some shifu

that i dipped several times,

i lost track how many,

maybe 7 or so,

 in the vat.

and below is one of many dimensional pieces i made in Mary Hark's PBI class

flax with inclusions,

dipped in the same indigo vat,

see how the dye works on different fiber

and different numbers of dunks?

can you guess what the inclusions are?

so this morning,

toe feeling much better,

i worked in the mill for 2 1/2 hours

made a big stack of larger heavy flax sheets.

(i'm beginning to understand flax)

oh, 

and reading design and craft?

i'm still very much pursuing that, 

 today, after spending the early morning with this book

i went off to make paper.

a very good balance for me.

andrew's book is a treasure, teaching through stories. 

i read a a few pages,

go away mulling it over, and return to read and think some more. 

his understanding of the creative process, of problem solving, 

and building well designed and beautiful environments

combine teaching wisdom with caring wisdom.

i am learning so much--

a very good book.

gone and rain

i'd not been walking at the farm much (my place) because of

traveling

rain

traveling 

and being Home.

and there it was--or wasn't.

the structure I'd laughed at and called barnhenge or woodhenge,

disappeared.

 and so did this little one, 

gone before it hatched

the most beautiful of blues.

except for all the other blues.

 reading about color and how we respond to it, and what moves me,

i read about ochres, i add them to pulp, i paint with them,

i read about madder,

five new plants will go into the garden soon.

i read about the properties of dyes and pigments and lakes

and find i know so little.

but still i get extremely excited about it all.

two writers online have been exploring madder's properties

as dye and as ink.

(are you reading these two?)

(hint: Sally and Tim)

i recently ordered a new copy of Hiroko's book,

a second edition which includes more treasure.

i ordered it from Washi Arts

Linda Marshall's wonderful online store.

Linda carries Japanese Paper Place products for US customers

and she is a delight to do business with.

(and to know--she was in my Seattle North Country Shifu class last summer)

 i got these little somethings in my package:

 such beautiful wee samples to touch and use up happily.

 here's the sample sheet of the kozo Hiroko favors,

added in right before the title page

 and in the 2018 edition: 

these samples of kami-ito,

one natural, one dyed

 a special thank you to my PBI student James Spyker 

who told me about the new edition 

which included these kami-ito samples!

a soft rain happened sometime today after noon,

after some morning gardening and then mowing my lawn

one of the most dreadful jobs I have

isn't quite so awful anymore.

 anyway, off my porch i saw this little one

 unafraid in the beginning rain

 munching grass in my porch perennial garden.

 this baby needs to be watchful and wary

(there is a narsty disheveled old he-cat who ambles by every now and then)

but little cottontail was quite calm so close to human me.

 yesterday i saw a doe with two beautiful fawns, in, of course,

the middle of the road.

i had no time to get the camera, watch the three on the hilltop, and watch for traffic.

a dangerous place to be pulled over.

so you will have to imagine them

in their cinnamon and white spotted legginess, 

mamma all legs and exquisite ears herself.

on the road, 

on a hilltop, 

the north woods holding them in close

disappearing into the green at the beep of my horn.